Prologue
by kelly54me
Summary: Long after the fall of the First Order, Rey ventures to the outer-rim in search of an infamous criminal. What she finds challenges not only what she thought she knew, but also who she has decided to become. (Prologue to an upcoming series).


Ten years.

Ten years of following leads and fighting ghosts.

Arkanis was a cold, rainy place. The weather matched Reys mood as she walked to the edge of town and into the damp forest. Hood drawn, she felt the life hidden in the tall pines long before she saw it.

Two people. Less than half a kilometer into the thicket and near a small river.

The sabre at Reys belt stayed firm on its clip. The reformed republic had been zealous in its attempts at capturing former members of the First Order high command, and Rey had watched plenty receive the punishment they deserved. Legal punishment, at the hands of the senate, not the end of a rouge jedis blade.

Rey had requested the Arkanis mission. For the sake of an old friend, she wanted to be the one to bring the man in.

Through the thicket, she could just make out the babbling of the stream. Somebody spoke beyond it, but the words were lost in the murmur.

Who else was in the woods with him? It was a presence she didn't recognize.

She walked on, pine nettles hiding the sound of each step.

One of the two walked off. Rey felt it. Only a little while later she came to the edge of the forest, her final target stood on the river bank. Tall and narrow as he had ever been, he leaned heavily on a cane. Years older than herself, his features hadn't changed much over the last decade. Even if they had, the bright red of his hair would have been a clear give away.

He hadn't seen her emerge from the tree line. Rey didn't have to yell. She didn't have to chase him down, he'd never be able to outrun her, not now.

"General Hux."

His shoulders stiffened at the unfamiliar voice carrying a best forgotten title.

Taking care not to slip on the river rock, he turned to face the unexpected visitor. He had his suspicions, but between the years and the hood and the trying to forget he didn't care to remember the woman's name. The sabre at her hip told him all he needed to know, besides.

"You're to stand trial before the galactic senate for your crimes. Come with me, it's best you not try to resist."

Armitage leaned heavily on his cane, as if it might do something to root him in place against the jedi's demand. Separated by nothing but twenty feet of soil and stone, he knew it was a useless gesture.

"And if I do?" he called back to the hooded woman.

The moment he left with the jedi, Armitage knew, he would never be a free man again. The senate talked of justice, but they hadn't the fire in them to enforce it. They didn't do what must be done to maintain order on a galactic scale. The sentence for his deeds should probably be death, but he knew they would assume that life in prison was the greater punishment.

So desperate to hold the moral high ground, they did away with death sentences. Officially, at least. He'd have to be a fool not to think that some prisoner would end him with a snapped neck or contraband blade.

"You know I'll have to take you by force."

The former general considered it, he knew his decision had to be made quickly. A fight would be loud, and painfully one sided. Would it be crueler to disappear without a word?

He considered his options for a moment too long. The bush to his left shook, before he had the chance to say anything the jedi put a hand on her blade. In a flurry of panic he hadn't felt in ten long years, Hux stepped to the side, desperate to stand between the woman and new comer.

Reys hand stopped over the sabers hilt.

"Dad?" A young boy carrying a fishing rod and bucket came from trees and stopped just behind the general.

Rey looked between the two like she was seeing for the first time. The boy stood only a little taller than Hux's elbow. Eyes the same green shade, they shared more features they Rey would ever care to admit. The red sheen to the boy's dark hair drew her eye almost as much as the generals quick move to block the boy from her.

"Lark, go home," Armitage was the first to speak.

The boy looked from his father to the stranger at the forests edge. They didn't get visitors, especially not unannounced ones. Her white robes could have been part of the mists, the boy thought. He would have mistaken her for a fairly tail if it weren't for his father's reaction. If it weren't for the mythic weapon she had clipped to her hip.

Eyes going wide, he took a step closer to his father, "I'm staying with you."

"This is not a negotiation." The general only spoke over his shoulder, not fully looking away from Rey.

Of all the things she had expected to find in the forests of Arkanis, this wasn't one. Far away but not forgotten memories of her own parents being pulled away before she even knew them floated at the back of her mind.

This wasn't the same. She had to tell herself that, had to believe.

Rey looked at the boy, now clutching the edge of his father's coat. His father the war criminal.

This wasn't the same.

AN:

This is a prologue to an upcoming series. I will begin posting Pt.1 on Jan-20 2020, the title with be Black.


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